SICK OF HOSP ‘WOES’
Maimonides slam
Brooklyn politicians and residents are up in arms about what they call an “unacceptable” quality of care at the borough’s largest hospital, Maimonides Medical Center, The Post has learned.
Neighborhood residents and elected officials described Maimonides as disorganized and declining in quality of care, and say New Yorkers who live near the Borough Park hospital turn to it only as a “last resort.”
Among the gripes are excessively long wait times to receive medical attention due to overwhelmed nurses and other staff, and hospital officials, who have allegedly failed to implement an effective system for attending to various types of patients.
‘Lack of care’
Lawmakers are now demanding a town hall meeting with hospital officials.
“We are concerned with the current management of Maimonides Medical Center,” wrote five legislators who represent Borough Park and surrounding neighborhoods.
The lawmakers noted that “constituents have voiced their frustration with us about the lack of care” at Maimonides, an independent nonprofit organization that isn’t part of a larger network like Northwell or NYU.
“This is unacceptable and untenable,” they added.
The letter — sent Thursday to Maimonides CEO Kenneth Gibbs — was signed by state Sen. Simcha Felder, Councilman Kalman Yeger, state Assemblyman Simcha Eichenstein, Assemblyman Robert Carroll and Assemblywoman Marcela Mitaynes.
“We have serious concerns about [the] financial well-being of the hospital. We are aware of nurse shortages at the hospital and fear that it is due to financial mismanagement,” reads the letter. “If this is not corrected, we believe the hospital will lose patients due to poor care and exasperate the hospital’s financial status.”
The legislators implored Gibbs to “engage the public directly” via a “town hallstyle meeting” to answer “critical questions.”
Asked for a response to the letter, a rep for Maimonides insisted the claims are “irresponsible” and part of a “smear campaign.”
“We are outraged by the malicious attack on the efforts of our nurses, doctors, administrators and staff, which have been nothing short of heroic over the past two years,” said the spokesperson, Stephanie Baez. “The deliberate dissemination of misinformation about and disparagement of the quality of care at Maimonides . . . does a deep disservice to the communities we serve.”